The Forgotten Network

"It is ironic that the most short-lived of the early American television networks should receive the first scholarly treatment, rather than NBC, CBS, or ABC." Technology and Culture "engaging...Weinstein makes effective use of corporate records and oral histories in a study that is both good business and cultural history." The American Historical Review "In The Forgotten Network, David Weinstein performs a singular task of historical recovery, using archival materials and recollections of surviving DuMont employees to bring to life the story of this maverick network... Weinstein's book is elegantly written, richly detailed. and offers the reader a glimpse into an era that has all but vanished." Wheeler Winston Dixon, Quarterly Review of Film and Video "Readers will thank David Weinstein for this tribute to DuMont, who is no longer a forgotten hero in television history." Donna L. Harper, Journal of Popular Culture "In The Forgotten Network, David Weinstein moves with sure mastery and ready wit through the technological issues, political machinations, and blurry kinescopes that tell the story of the ill-starred DuMont network. Sharply insightful and smartly written, Weinstein's TV guidebook to a lost chapter in American broadcasting is a major contribution to both television studies and Cold War history. He answers a question that has bedevilled media scholars for decades: how did four networks become three?" Thomas Doherty, Brandeis University, and author of Cold War, Cool Medium: Television, McCarthyism, and American Culture "Television has changed the way we live in ways most of us take for granted. In a well researched, informative, and entertaining book, David Weinstein looks at the history of the DuMont network. During its nine-year run beginning in 1946, DuMont created a legacy that included The Honeymooners, Captain Video, Sid Caesar's The Admiral Broadway Review, and Ernie Kovacs. DuMont laid the foundation for a medium that continues to enlighten, inform, educate, and entertain us." Eddy Friedfeld, WOR Radio, and co-author, Caesar's Hours "Thankfully, David Weinstein allows us to rediscover DuMont in the first comprehensive history, an outstanding institutional history of American television, of the network. Weinstein's accomplishment in piecing together the network's history from its few surviving traces deserves the attention of anyone interested in the history of post-war American culture and the respect of all who recognize the dedication and imagination that has gone into this research." Film Quarterly